El Horóscopo Chino en tercer grado / Chinese Horoscope in Third Grade

In connection with third grade’s Ancient China Study, in Spanish class the students have been learning the vocabulary for the animals and their presumed attributes that are represented in the Chinese Zodiac. El Horóscopo Chino consists of twelve signs and is determined by the Chinese Lunar Year. There are twelve animals, one for each year of the lunar cycle.

1. la rata: the rat

            ambicioso, trabajador y creativo

            ambitious, hard working and creative

2. el buey: the ox

            responsable, paciente y leal

            responsible, patient and loyal

3. el tigre: the tiger

            valiente, simpático y sospechoso

            brave, nice and suspicious

4. el conejo: the rabbit

            compasivo, creativo y amigable

            compassionate, creative and friendly

5. el dragón: the dragon

            brillante, honesto y entusiasmado

            brilliant, honest and enthusiastic

6. la serpiente: the snake

            sabio, callado y respetado

            wise, quiet and respected

7. el caballo: the horse

            alegre, hablador e independiente

            cheerful, talkative and independent

8. la cabra: the sheep

            amable, creativo y apasionado

            loving, creative and passionate

9. el mono: the monkey

            inteligente, chistoso y genial

            intelligent, humorous and genius

10. el gallo: the rooster

            agresivo, ambicioso y orgulloso

            aggressive, ambitious and proud

11. el perro: the dog

            honesto, leal y sincero

            honest, loyal and sincere

12. el cerdo: the pig

            cariñoso, simpático y trabajador

            affectionate, kind and hard working

The third graders have had much fun putting their new knowledge to practice. Many entertaining and engaging games have been provided for the students to practice their listening and reading comprehension. For example, el juego de los matamoscas (the Swatter Game) was first played using the photo of the animals, then with their printed name, and then with the written personality traits that the students needed to read in order to swat the correct one called out. 

In addition, the students played a couple of rounds of their favorite, Pulgar Arriba (Thumbs-Up) by using flashcards with the animal photo and then with the written word. 

Charadas (Charades) was also another entertaining game played to enhance learning...

...and crossword puzzles.

Lastly, the students played a few rounds of another favorite, Bingo, created just for this study.  The three characteristic traits of an animal were called out and reference sheets were used so that the students could read and connect them with its corresponding animal logo on their board. In later games, the students were encouraged to play solely from memory. What a fun challenge!!

The culminating activity for the study was inviting the third graders to invent their own zodiac sign. The question was posed, “ If you could create your own signo de horóscopo, what would it look like and what would it be called?” Using Model Magic, the students crafted their ideas…

Are Pigs Smart? Ask a First Grader

Are pigs smarter than dogs? First graders have found out the answer through research. It turns out that pigs are the fourth smartest animal. In order to find the animals that came in first, second and third just ask a first grader!

This spring first grade students researched the animals featured in fairy tales: the black bear, the gray wolf and the pig. They watched videos of the animals in their habitats, listened to books and articles read aloud, reread the articles and highlighted facts of interest and then written the facts in their own words in their research packets. Students practiced their measurement skills when they measured how the length of a pig would compare to a first grade student. They also created a poster that includes information that they want to share with others about each animal. Students chose photos of the animals to use as a guide while illustrating their research.

An exciting experience during our pig research was having a real pig named Frankie come to visit from the Ross Mill Farm, a sanctuary for rescued pet pigs. Our students shared their knowledge about pigs and had many questions to ask about Frankie. Students experienced the sound a pig makes while singing. This brought a fact to life that students had read about, a mother pig sings to her piglets while nursing. Unfortunately a black bear and wolf were not able to come to class for visits but first grade students certainly learned a lot observing the real pig from Ross Mill Farm. If you want to learn more about Ross Mill Farm just click on the link. https://rossmillfarm.com/

Friendships in Kindergarten

As the school year begins to wind down, our kindergarten class has been reflecting on the many lessons we have learned over the year. We have talked about the math problems we can now solve, the words we can read, the sentences we can write, and all the new facts we have learned on our field trips and in our resource classes. An overwhelming theme that stood out during these recent discussions were how the learning we did this year also involved our friends! We realized that our relationships and friendships built have been so important to us. Here is the list the kindergarten students came up with that describes what a friend is and all that we do with our friends every day!

Friends work together ...

Friends play together... 

We learn together...

Friends do math together...

                                            

Friends also are nice to one another...

Friends like me and I like them...

Cowboy Tim

       Friends let you be yourself and think it is fun 
when you play someone else too..

Captain Turbo

Friends play with slime together...

Friends sing together...
Friends build together...

                                 
                                                                  Friends draw together...

Friends play games together...

                                                                         Friends read together...

Friend help each other when they need help...

Friends solve problems together...

Friends forgive one another...

   Friends love one another...

Third Graders Jump into "The Year of the Panda" in Fiction Book Groups

    After completing an extensive research project on giant pandas, third graders delved into the fiction book The Year of the Panda in book groups.  This story, by Miriam Schlein, features a boy named Lu Yi who lives on a farm at the foot of the mountains of China.  One day, a giant panda appears in a neighbor's field, a rare occurrence, given the farm's distance from the high-mountain bamboo forests that pandas inhabit.  Soon after, Lu Yi is on a walk with his father in the woods when they come upon an orphaned baby panda.  Lu Yi nurses the helpless animal back to health and quickly develops a bond with the small panda.

        While this story is fictional, it does educate the third graders about bamboo die offs, which happen about every 60 years, as well as what the Chinese government has tried to do to protect pandas. In the story,  Lu Yi travels with the panda, Su Lin, to a panda research center, where is is able to learn first hand about panda conservation.  Through reading this story, third graders were able to use the knowledge they learned during our panda research, and they were also able to put themselves into Lu Yi's shoes as they talked and wrote about what it would be like to care for a baby panda.  The students were very enthusiastic about reading The Year of the Panda after completing panda research and they loved sharing facts that they knew about pandas.

Second Grade Authors

Second grade students have been immersed in How and Why stories. They have read numerous stories from around the world. Each child has picked a story to learn and tell at Second Grade Story Telling Night later this month. As authors, they have studied the structure of how to write their own how and why story. Students learned that these stories were originally created to help people explain various aspects of nature, before science evolved to help us better understand the natural world. 

The first step in story development was to choose an idea. Each class brainstormed a list of possible topics. Students picked three potential areas of interest and then thought about which one was the most compelling. They next completed pictures depicting transformational change in the story. Some of the ideas students chose include, why dogs learned to bark, how a bee got its stinger, why a cheetah learned to run fast, why the moon has phases and how continents separated. Students planned their stories carefully, thinking about the setting, the characters, why and how the characters changed and the plot. The next step was to write a first draft. 

Once initial drafts were complete, students shared their stories with other students and their teachers, gaining feedback that then helped them to revise. The last step will be to write their final story and include a before and after picture. Creating How and Why stories has been a wonderfully creative and challenging project!

First Grade 'Bears' Witness

During one of our Meeting for Worship preparation times the first graders made collages on large bears about the many ways that they use their bodies to show witness (this year's all school Quakerism theme).  We love "Bear Witness" from the Catbird class and thought that it would be exciting to each have our own.  And it proved to be true!

It was absolutely amazing to hear all of the ideas that went into their collages and how well they understood the meaning of witness, not an easy concept to grasp. Some of the ideas that became parts of their bears included: picking up trash with my hands or planting flowers to help the environment, using legs to be a partner to a friend who needs to go in to use the bathroom or walk a dog,  using my brain to learn, using my heart to love my family and using my body to travel to learn about other places. Very impressive thinking for students so young!

Once our collages were finished, Amanda allowed us to use the art room to paint the other sides.  And guess who our model was for painting a bear?  None other than "Bear Witness" theirself!!  What fun it was to paint these big bears!

Finally, we got to take our bear witnesses on the road!  We visited "Bear Witness" and the Catbird class and loved hearing that they shared some of the ways we show witness.  And, our third grade Meeting partners had the opportunity to hear about our bears and then very excitedly shared the many ways that they show witness in their lives.  This was such an enriching and deeply thoughtful experience for the first graders, and for the Catbirds and third graders as well! It is such a wonder how deeply connected they all are to the theme of witness!

Oso café, oso café, ¿qué ves ahí? / Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

A keen interest on animals in all three EC classes has prompted a unit on Eric Carle’s popular children’s picture book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” It is a traditional beloved tale with predictable and repetitive text that the students enjoy reading over and over as they participate in the reading experience. A study on this classic favorite has offered the opportunity to link two concepts, animals and colors, to their Spanish language class experience.

During Spanish class, the students were introduced to the Spanish version of the book, Oso café, oso café, ¿qué ves ahí? Flashcards were created for each of the characters in the story and many games of matamoscas (fly swatters) were played to help the children learn and reinforce the Spanish word for each animal and its color. To foster their memory skills by concentrating and focusing, we played ¿Qué falta? (What’s missing?) using small figurines to represent each character. Additionally, a Bingo game was crafted to help support the children’s new knowledge. This game helped our young learners strengthen their Spanish vocabulary recall ability using the combination of both colors and animals.

As a culminating activity, each class was given the opportunity to craft three characters in the story. We collaborated with our talented art teacher, Amanda, who suggested creating papier mâché sculptures. During art class, the students crumbled newspaper into balls and taped it unto cardboard cutouts in the shape of each animal. Then, during Community Time, using a mixture of water and glue the students and teachers worked jointly to layer the “animals” with strips of paper in the color of that animal. 

Their finished creations will be displayed at the EC/K Art Installation that will be exhibited on the day of our Spring Concert. Make sure to ask your young learner which animal she, he or they worked on.

Vocabulary introduced:

oso café – brown bear

pájaro rojo – red bird

pato amarillo -  yellow duck

caballo azul – blue horse

rana verde – green frog

gato morado – purple cat

perro blanco – white dog

oveja negra – black sheep

pez dorado – gold fish

maestra – teacher

niños – children